If you spend any amount of time in Bend, you’ll hear about the Phil’s Trails. With roughly 55 miles of singletrack in the Phil’s Area (with numerous trails connecting into Phil’s from the massive network in the surrounding Deschutes National Forest), there is plenty to explore… and if you want to ride from town, you can access the singletrack from trailheads on the outskirts of Bend.

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We began our ride from the trailhead closest to town, and decided that we would only go out as far as we wanted and would then turn around and make our way back, as it was an out-and-back route. We packed some sandwiches for a leisurely lunch on the river bank, then set out.

Our chosen trailhead was located about a mile from the banks of the actual river, so we pedaled through dry, open land on sandy double and singletrack. Make no mistake, Bend gets hot in the summertime, and with no shelter from the sun, the first section was sweltering. However, once we dropped down to the river, the cool breeze off the water and the tall trees along the river banks made for a considerable improvement.

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Still, once I embraced the dry conditions and got acquainted with maintaining traction in the dusty corners, I was able to relax and rip into the descent. It felt so fulfilling to be shredding downhill in the big mountains again! While the three-day drive to Oregon was extremely tedious, it was all paying off now.

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The Hydrapak Bishop is the most comfortable, most stable, and best weight-bearing mountain bike hydration pack I have ever used. While I can’t claim to have tested every pack, I’ve used quite a few… so that’s saying something!

While in the past I would run smaller hydration packs for short rides and reserve my bigger packs for long jaunts, the Bishop is so comfortable no matter the situation that I feel no need to swap packs. The Bishop is going to be my go-to mountain biking pack for the foreseeable future. Heck, I don’t know if I even want to test another pack now!

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Apparently, bike-y Valentine’s Day Facebook posts/memes have become a thing. Anybody who is really serious about bikes just has to express their love for bikes, or their love for their significant other by using some sort of bike-related reference, on Valentine’s Day. I’m still unsure if this is a sincere thing, a sarcastic thing, an ironic thing, a just-for-fun thing, or maybe even none of the above. But one thing is certain: every year it keeps getting worse (or better?).

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Canon City, located an hour down the road from my new hometown of Salida, Colorado, sits about 1,700 feet lower in elevation and generally receives even less precipitation than Salida… which isn’t easy to do. I’d previously driven down there to ride the new Oil Well Flats trail system, and after a few weeks of riding the one dry trail system in Salida, I turned my pickup toward Canon City again. This time, my main goal was to ride Section 13.

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I mounted a pair of the Nevegal X Pro 29 tires up tubeless on my new Easton EC70 wheels, which I put onmy Airborne Goblin. Now, the Nevegal X Pro is billed as a trail/all mountain tire, not a cross country tire, but putting more aggressive tires on my hardtail 29er was more than fine with me. I hate sacrificing traction and cornering control just to lose a few grams of rotational weight, so these tires were right at home on my rig.

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The EC70 Wide is a carbon flat bar that’s designed to offer the leverage and control that have led to the popularity of wide bars, without the added height from the riser that has often accompanied the increased width.

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However, the jacket obviously adds in sleeves, and the sleeves are well-worth noting. The Arenberg sleeves take a page out of the snowsports book and incorporate a weather protective hem, which creates an excellent glove-sleeve interface.

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Shimano has just announced a brand-new action sports camera, dubbed the CM-1000. This is Shimano’s first product from its new Lifestyle Gear Division.

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Essentially every high-end mountain bike company makes bikes that ride and perform really well… but not all of them make bikes that perform well and are pleasing to look at. With the curvy carbon lines of the Force’s frame, not only is it functional, but is extremely good looking too!

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Starting off as a doubletrack, the tread quickly narrows into singletrack. This section of the CDT passes through numerous high-alpine meadows, bursting with wildflowers of all colors of the rainbow. Every mile or so (it seems) the trail passes a high alpine lake, natural, clear, and isolated from civilization. 

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The Upper Winter Creek and Lower Winter Creek singletrack trails are where the real riding is at. Some sections are super tech and probably will force you to dismount, but for the most part it is awesome benchcut singletrack! I definitely went the wrong way around the singletrack loop: try going clockwise (Upper Winter Creek first). This will require a steep (but short) paved climb at the end after you finish Lower Winter Creek, but you'll do most of the descending on singletrack this way.

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Now, when you rate a photo four stars or higher, the photographer will get a quick email giving them kudos for taking awesome photos. Also, the photo gallery rankings and trail thumbnails are now instantly updated based on your photo ratings (previously, there was a delay). Now if you see a photo that you really like, and you give it a high ranking, you get the instant gratification of seeing it jump up the photo rankings!

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Colt and Jessee Maule are the husband-and-wife team behind the cameras of Projekt Roam. They’re in the business of shooting and producing fantastic mountain bike videos and photographs, and we’ve featured a ton of their work over the past few years here on Singletracks. Whether it’s one of theirfantastic videos, a killer photo of the day, or their new Weekly Wander photo feature on the blog, Colt and Jessee consistently produce top-notch, professional content.

Read the full interview here.

Over the past two years, the Bell Super has become the quintessential all mountain/enduro helmet. Now it seems like I can hardly click on a riding video without seeing someone who’s wearing “my” helmet.

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Now, when you rate a photo four stars or higher, the photographer will get a quick email giving them kudos for taking awesome photos. Also, the photo gallery rankings and trail thumbnails are now instantly updated based on your photo ratings (previously, there was a delay). Now if you see a photo that you really like, and you give it a high ranking, you get the instant gratification of seeing it jump up the photo rankings!

Read the full article here.